The Story Of Success By Lain Iwakura
by Jody Armstrong
Summary: A short essay that Lain wrote for a homework assignment on The Wired shortly after her introduction to Navis


The Story Of Success By Lain Iwakura

  


In 1983, as IBM, Microsoft and Apple computers were beginning to pioneer and develop the desktop PC a small company in Japan began to design its own computer system. Tachibana Labs Inc, headed by Yoshi Myamoto developed several different computer systems designed to aid in manufacturing and research companies. Powered by its own design of processor and running a custom built command-line OS Tachibana Labs released its first Navi system in the summer of 1984 to critical acclaim in the sectors it was selling to.

Myamoto had a vision though, which was to supply computer systems to the general public, but at this time it was neither realistic to market such ideas nor financially affordable to the general population. Nevertheless, Myamoto poured money from Tachibana profits into a small R&D and programming team headed by a young visionary Massami Eiri.

Eiri's team was responsible solely for the purpose of designing a system capable of taking the computer into every avenue of life, quickly, easily and affordably. 

In 1987 Tachibana Labs acquired a small software company working out of Silicon Valley in California which was developing a new operating system called CopelandOS. The software company, formed by several ex-employees at Apple Computers Inc, had a vision for an advanced operating system tied closely to the development of the World Wide Web which was growing fast for use in commercial, entertainment and educational establishments. However, the minds behind CopelandOS had neither the financial resources nor a hardware platform from which to launch their ideas into the marketplace. After several months of discussion, Miyamoto and Eiri concluded the deal. Soon after that, CopelandOS moved to Japan.

Over the next five years, Miyamoto and Eiri were working had to develop a new style of home computer,. They constantly monitored other designs from the likes of Apple and IBM and had combined the elements from each device that intrigued them. However they also decided that, while it was important for them to have their own hardware specification, they also knew that their finished system, running CopelandOS, should be platform independent to survive. In 1992 Tachibana released the Navi 1, a home computer system for the Japanese market, with its Kanji input method and smooth graphical interface and built in access to the Internet, including membership to Tachibana's ISP, Tachibana effectively closed the door to Microsoft and Apple powered PCs in one move. Over the next few years the constant refinements improved the Navi to make it more powerful and feature rich and prevented the Western PCs from getting anywhere near Japan.

While Tachibana Labs grew and expanded as it enjoyed retail and consumer success, Miyamoto and Eiri continued to develop their ideas, now they had a large income and a dedicated userbase. Miyamoto, under Eiri's advice, purchased large stakes in various worldwide telecom companies, including BT, FranceTelecoms and AT&T. Eiri was convinced that The Internet was going to explode in scope and popularity and in order to control it, Tachibana had to control the wires and satellites that were going to control the flow of data. Eiri also recommended a heavy investment into providing IP Routers and large-scale web severs, to facilitate this end in 1994 Tachibana entered into a partnership with Cisco to produce a replacement for the IP Protocol, which was dubbed as The Wired Protocol. Envisioned to be faster and more reliable, with a far better scope for expandability Tachibana's Wired Protocol was installed alongside the standard IP Protocols. This made it easy for webmasters, computer manufacturers and ISPs to provide support for both Protocols, it wasn't long before other companies approached Tachibana to license the new protocol, Tachibana released it free for all to use, with various licensing constraints which kept Tachibana in control of the overall development.

By late 1995 it was estimated that 65% of the world's web traffic was being conducted on The Wired Protocol, which was now in its third version. It was at this stage in Tachibana's history that its main rival, Microsoft, dealt itself a killer blow. With the release of the new Windows 95, Bill Gates had decided not to implement support for The Wired Protocol. The stated reason being because of Tachibana's overall control over the development of the software protocol, an ironic twist considering Microsoft was at the time trying to gain control of several emerging technologies, for example, Java. Microsoft were berated by complaints from consumers and business users alike, but after six months Microsoft still refused to change its position, despite a rapid decline in the sales of Intel based PCs.

Tachibana seized the opportunity and quickly established a presence with its desktop Navi systems in some of the top Western PC retailers. Along with a major deal with chip maker AMD to manufacture and assist in the R&D of new faster Navi processors. These new PCs, designed for Western markets also debuted the latest version of CoplandOS that sported a totally new GUI and built in support for Apple and Linux/Unix based applications as well as full integration of The Wired Protocol. It wasn't long before Microsoft stood on very shaky ground. At the turn of 1996 as Navi's were being installed in both enterprise environments, as workstation, web server and server based applications, and as home machines, including the popular Mobi-Navi hand units (which obliterated Palm Inc in a matter of months), Tachibana Labs announced it had bought Apple Computers. While Apple would be absorbed into Tachibana Labs all future Macintosh based computers would be built around CopelandOS for Mac and Apple designers were brought under the wing to design more streamlined Navi's. The move safeguarded the Apple brand while securing a long-term future under Tachibana Labs.

  


By the introduction of Windows 98 Bill Gates had conceded that The Wired Protocol was in charge, but the PC marketplace had shrunk by 40% with no signs of growth ahead, with an attempt by Microsoft and various Linux companies to emulate the GUI of CoplandOS (a blatant port by Red Hat secured their demise at the hands of Tachibana's lawyers), nobody could give the speed and fluidity of the OS and Navi combined, The Wired Protocol was optimised for Navi based computers and Tachibana predicted the death of all other makes by the end of 2002. By the turn of 2000 Microsoft had begun to port its applications over to CoplandOS and began staff lay-offs as part of a restructure.

  


Tachibana Labs had ushered in the age of The Wired.

  


Lain Iwakura

  


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The Story Of Success by Jody Armstrong

Copyright Jody Armstrong 2001

  


  



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